Erik "Lizardman" Sprague will return to Syracuse this weekend as the master of ceremonies for the 28th annual Am-Jam Tattoo Expo.

Lizardman is a professional freak who clocked 700+ hours being tattooed with green scales. His horned ridge eyebrows, sharpened teeth and surgically-bifurcated tongue easily distract from his other passions. He's also an academic with a degree in philosophy, the lead vocalist for his metal band Lizard Skynard and an author who wrote glowingly about Am-Jam in his book "Once More Through the Modified Looking Glass."

Jean Aldous, president and owner of Am-Jam, calls Sprague 'one of her kids.'

"I knew him back when he didn't have all the tattoos yet; he was probably a teen when I met him," said Aldous. "He's not your typical tattoo sideshow. He's got a brain. He's so intelligent and personable."

In his book, Sprague reminisces about his first Am-Jam:

Within moments of arriving we made fast friends with everyone
there and Jeannie [Aldous] was soon calling us her 'sons'. Throughout the day I would get onstage and do an act or two - a bed of nails, sew buttons to my arms, lift things with piercings, the blockhead, etc. It went incredibly well and the crowd loved it. This was also the source of one of my favorite all time crowd comments: "Man, that is f***ed up!"

Q&A with Erik 'Lizardman' Sprague

Where are you calling from today? I heard you lived in Austin, Texas, but that 518 area code is throwing me off.

I got my first cell phone living in Albany while I was in graduate school. I'm in Texas now. I moved to get out of those New York winters. I grew up in Clinton County close to Plattsburgh.

You always come back for Am-Jam though.

I started coming 15 years ago and I always want to come back. I definitely feel like a part of the Am-Jam family.

In your book, you call Am-Jam the benchmark by which you measure other conventions, Why is that?

It was the very first convention I ever went to. I hit it off with everybody. That was in January of 1999. Since then, I only missed one year (2006) because I was on tour with Disturbed. Am-Jam is predictable in a good way. It's reliable in that I know when I go there, I'm going to have a good experience.

Was there a particular lizard you wanted replicate with your tattoo design, body modification and tongues?

Monitor lizards are the only ones with the forked tongues, but I was just going for a reptilian theme.

How far does your lizard persona go? Do you eat live insects?

I do eat live insects. All sorts of bugs. Crickets, grubs, worms, butterflies, cockroaches, moths. Some of them were alright, some are nasty. It's not a regular thing I eat.

I've read you won't be getting a tail.

In theory, a tail sounds nice, but the likelihood of considering it is nil. There's a host of other questions about sitting down and clothing, the things that make it impossible.

What's your next body modification?

I'm still actively pursuing navel negation (belly button removal). I could do that as soon as I wanted and also have my nipples removed for a smooth, lizard torso.

I'm very interested in that but I'm not interested in paying for all of it, so I'm going to wait for the next TV special that wants to document it. They can pick up the tab. (laughs)

Navel negation and nipple removal?

It's not invasive. It would all be happening on the surface with local anesthesia.

What do you think is the weirdest part of the human body?

Well, we're a terribly well-adapted organism so it's not weird to us, but our knees kind of suck. They're poorly-formed.

Yeah, they only bend one way.

There's a high tendency to fail with knees.

I liked the chapter in your book about people constantly asking "Can I touch you?" You always have to balance being polite with your discomfort with it. Are you still letting most people touch you?

Obviously there's a line. Half the time I encourage it. I can see them thinking it, so I say, "Go ahead, you can touch." They act all freaked out or they think it's cool.

I look at it as working, as part of being always 'on.' I would probably not miss it and be happy if it never came up. I've been touched by a lot of people who I'd otherwise never want contact with. These are strangers, you know? These are random people that show up. They're not bad -- they're normal people -- but how many strangers on the street would you want touching your face on a daily basis?

View full sizeTattoo artist Jay Laviolette of Rotterdam works on the back of Jennifer Verret of Schenectady. The Am-Jam Tattoo Expo brings together ink-lovers for competitions. Dennis Nett | The Post-Standard

The expo features 100+ body piercers and tattoo artists at work. There will be more than 20 tattoo competitions each day, judged on quality and consistency of the outline, color, aesthetic appeal, placement on body, use of space on the body, composition and presentation.

Lizardman describes Am-Jam in his book:

There are always variables in life, especially that of a traveling performer, and sometimes the start of a new year can seem daunting but I feel assured that I can count on being at a lot more Am-Jams and every one sending me off better than the last into the rest of the year.